Down with the Titanic

Still with my trip to Melbourne, I got to go and see Titanic : the Artefact Exhibition at the Museum before it closes next week (with the huge crowds & difficulties in getting a ticket, they could extend the season for quite some time).

The tour was very busy, lining up, looking at exhibits over others' shoulders, waiting for the procession to move on.

Here is my boarding pass, given to each exhibition visitor. At the end of the tour you check the lists of passengers & crew to find if your character survived the sinking. I was Miss Bridget McDermott an Irish immigrant in 3rd Class (a third-class ticket on Titanic cost $40, approximately $900 in today’s currency), travelling to visit her cousin in St Louis. The night before sailing Bridget gave a few coins to a wanderer who told her she was going on a long journey 'There will be a tragedy but you will be saved' he said. Bridget was saved from the Titanic.

The story for those living in a cave for over 100 years - On April 15, 1912, Titanic, the world’s largest ship, sank after colliding with an iceberg, claiming more than 1,500 lives, and becoming one of the world’s greatest maritime disasters, and the best known.

The Exhibition showcases more than 280 artefacts retrieved from Titanic’s debris field, offering a poignant look at this legendary ship and its passengers and crew. The Exhibition has created stories through artefacts and re-creations of the ship’s interior.

The exhibition journeys through the life of Titanic, from construction and life on board, to its ill-fated voyage, tragic sinking and the amazing efforts to recover artefacts.

RMS Titanic, Inc. is the company permitted by law to recover objects from the wreck, it has conducted 7 research and recovery expeditions rescuing more than 5,500 artefacts. Artefacts on display, include the D-Deck door, a large hull section, a cherub statue, portholes, china and glass-ware, currency and passenger’s personal effects.

There is a full-size re-creation of the ship’s Grand Staircase. There is a mystery concerning the loss of the entire Staircase from the relatively intact bow section. James Cameron explored the bottom of the stairwell, and no traces of the heavy oak handrails or the wrought-iron balustrades remained. When the Titanic film-set was flooded the entire staircase dislodged - did this also happen to the real staircase and did it float to the surface?

I didn't read all the display boards as the press of people was too great, but did read all the cards on all the artefacts - utterly amazing - one that they could find tiny objects like cuff links and childrens' marbles, and second that some fragile items like paper bank-notes, and linen jackets could survive decades underwater virtually intact.

The re-creation of the First Class hallway & staircase, the Passengers' Verandah Cafe, and the Third Class accommodation were awesome. But strangely it was walking down the carpet of the re-creation of the First Class Hallway which made the biggest impression on me - all those white painted doors with their number plates.

Finally at the end you come to the ubiquitous photo sales and gift shop, and I was intending to pass straight through the commericalism, until I saw the teddies. And I immediately remembered the kids book Polar : the Titanic bear by Daisy Corning Stone Spedden.

Daisy and her husband were a wealthy couple with a passion for travel. With their young son Douglas, they sailed on the Titanic. On the night of the disaster Polar the stuffed bear was tucked under Douglas' arm as the Speddens were lowered into a lifeboat. After the rescue Polar was left behind till a sailor found him and returned him to Douglas.

Three years after the sinking, 9-year-old Douglas was killed in a car accident. No one knows what then happened to Polar.